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When the major league baseball season hits the "Dog Days of August," the truly bad teams are revealed, the pretenders begin getting exposed, and the good teams make their move towards the post season.

The Kansas City Royals clearly fit the first category, even if Saturday night they ended their 19 game losing streak. The Royals stumbled out of the gate and lost their manger in April when the popular Tony Pena called it quits during the team's 8 win, 25 loss start to the 2005 season.

But that paled in comparison to the most recent Royal foibles. The team went three weeks without a victory as their weaknesses became even more glaring just as the games piled up. By the time the team had reached the 19 losses in a row, they stood dead last in the American League in hitting, their .258 batting average a point below the equally woeful Seattle Mariners. Making matters worse, the team also ranked dead last in pitching, their 5.62 team ERA one of the worst in recent years. The teams that can't hit and can't pitch generally lose and lose often - something like 19 in a row and going 23 days between victories.

At least for the Royals sake the still remain a notch beyond both the American and National League records for futility. The Baltimore Orioles own the American League mark of 21 straight at the beginning of the 1988 season while the National League Philadelphia Phillies still remain the all-time record holder with 23 straight losses back in 1961.

In the category of pretenders, one might start to wonder about the White Sox. The team that has set the pace throughout the season has been in a real funk of late, having lost seven in a row.

The Sox continue to have excellent pitching stats but their inability to score runs has begun to catch up with them. With a .260 batting average, the White Sox struggle to get runners home, scoring fewer runs than even the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In addition, their pitching ERA, still a strong 3.66 in the designated hitter American League, now trails the Minnesota Twins and barely edges out the hard rushing Oakland Athletics.

With the White Sox having that all important element of starting pitching, they should be able to hold on in the American League and make the postseason, where quite frankly, their pitching could make things very interesting. But they just might have to rely on their strong start to get there.

Over in the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals continue to show no after effects of the four game World Series sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox in 2004. St. Louis is simply piling up the wins as the team moves deeper into the season, now posting the best record for both leagues at 78 and 45. The Cardinals need only win 50% of their remaining games to reach the 97-98 win plateau and with their current pace could reach the impressive 104-106 win mark.

The Cardinals win wherever they play, with 41 wins at home and 37 on the road. Their 3.47 team ERA tops all of baseball. The team staff has 11 complete games and 10 shutouts on the season, second in the majors only to the Florida Marlins while the bullpen's 40 saves rank second in the majors only to the White Sox.

The Cardinals have a great one-two starting pitching punch of Chris Carpenter and Matt Morris, but it is the pitching depth that has them shining as the season heads towards September. Carpenter has 17 wins and a puny 2.29 ERA but Morris has 13 wins, Mark Mulder 14, and Jeff Suppan 12. All three have ERA's of 4.04 or better leading many to believe the Cardinals will be back in the Fall Classic this year, this time as heavy favorites.

Because as good as the pitching is, the Cards are also led by the game's best hitter, Albert Pujols. There simply is no one that can compare to the Cardinals' 25-year old hitting machine , a young man who has put up extraordinary numbers in his first four major league seasons and is perhaps having his best year as a professional.

Having already averaged 40 homers, 126 RBI's, and a .333 batting average for each of his first four seasons, the St. Louis first baseman continues to set the standard for hitting. With still almost a quarter of the season left, Pujols has 153 hits, a .336 batting average, 33 homers and 94 runs batted in. Though much has been made of the break out season of Derrick Lee of the Cubs, the Cardinal's slugger is right there with Lee in every category and is on a pace to rival his career best of 130 RBI's and 46 homers.

Kudos: To Ken Griffey for finally getting healthy enough to play a full season. Griffey has played 115 games in 2005, his most since the 2000 season. Griffey also has 29 homers, moving his career total to 530. Still yet to turn 36 Griffey could be back on track for a run at Aaron's record. To the San Diego Padres, who are now 61 and 61 in the National League West, known as the NL Weak or NL Worst. It would be a huge setback for the game for a sub .500 team to make the playoffs so we are pulling for someone to win some games out there. San Diego appears to be the best team to do so. And to Roger Clemens; at 43 years young the power pitcher is having his best ERA season of his long career. The lifetime winner of 339 games has a career ERA of 3.12 and season best 1.93 back in 1990 with the Boston Red Sox. For 2005, Clemens has tooled to an almost Gibson-like, 1.53 mark.